CyanogenMod provides details regarding Jelly Bean and CM10
With the release of Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, everyone is now looking at popular custom ROM makers CyanogenMod to provide details as to when will they be releasing an update to CyanogenMod.
The team has taken to Google+ and although they did not provide an ETA for the update, they did provide a few details about the update itself.
The next update, as you may have guessed, will be called CM10, keeping with the tradition of giving the update the same number as the position of the alphabet the Android version is named after (‘J’ in Jelly Bean being the 10th letter).
Since Jelly Bean is not a major update over Ice Cream Sandwich, the way ICS was over Gingerbread, there won’t have to do any major rewriting as they had to do for CM9, which means the update should arrive relatively quicker. Having said that the team is not 100% sure about this as Google still hasn’t released the source code for Jelly Bean.
They also said that they will be incorporating features such as Project Butter and if your handset was compatible with CM9 then it should be eligible to get Android 4.1 as well.
The team is currently working on releasing a stable version of CM9, after which they will focus on CM7 and CM10.
Exactly one week ago, Google’s Eric Schmidt stepped on stage during Motorola’s On Display event and announced that Android activations had surpassed 480 million. He also confirmed that there were 1.3 million daily activations of new Android devices.
Yesterday, the director of product management for Android, Hugo Barra, confirmed that the platform has shot past the 500 million mark. This means that about 20 million new Android devices have been purchased over the past six days alone, or about 3.3 million per day.
Of course, this tripling of daily activations is highly unlikely and we’d guess Eric Schmidt’s data wasn’t current at the time of his announcement, but the growth rate is certainly increasing. And that’s even before all the new launches that are expected to happen over the next couple of months (Motorola’s lineup, the Note II, HTC’s new flagship etc.).
The Android platform is obviously in as good a shape as ever, but we have yet to see how it will fare once smartphones running the upcoming WP8 and iOS 6 arrive to the market.
An Apple iPad Mini mockup makes rounds for the video camera
By this point, most of you have probably already seen a leaked snap or two of what the rumored 7.85″ iPad Mini would look like. And honestly, since the iPhone 5 body leaked from Chinese factories months ahead of the announcement, I’m willing to give this rumor the benefit of a doubt as well.
The new iPad Mini looks like a… mini version of uhm, well… the iPad. There are no surprises there and given Apple’s track record in approaching product design conservatively, this might as well be it.
Earlier rumors have it that the iPad Mini will be announced in October and it makes sense. That would nail the middle of the product cycle of the bigger iPad and it would put the shiny new toy out there just in time for the holiday shopping.
But I digress, here’s the new video.
For me, the iPad has always been too much of a couch tablet to really enjoy it on the go, so I would really enjoy a more compact version. What about you?
Asus ME301T MemoPad 10, a $365 10-inch Android tablet, could show up at CES
According to rumors, Asus has plans to introduce two cheap 7″ Android tablets at CES (maybe as cheap as $129). A leak from retailer Icecat.us points to a cheap 10″ tablet that might be joining them at the Asus CES booth.
The tablet is known only as Asus ME301T MemoPad 10, will apparently pack a Tegra 3 chipset (like the one in the Nexus 7) and will run Android 4.1 Jelly Bean. Other specs visible from the listing are 1GB of RAM and 16GB storage. This particular slate seems to be Wi-Fi only, though there should be a 3G version too.
The price of the Asus ME301T will be lower than that of the Google Nexus 10, $365 / €255 if the leaked listing is to be believed.
The info seems to have been updated recently, the above image is from Icecat.us at the time of writing, while the following image was snapped by PocketDroid.net earlier. It shows more info on the hardware, but also a higher price.
The listing could be completely wrong, but with CES kicking off next week we’re sure we’ll see a lot of tablet announcements. And (fingers crossed) there will be affordable 7″ and 10″ Asus tablets.
Samsung Galaxy Express, Galaxy Rugby Pro, and Galaxy Note II for AT&T hands-on
We encountered AT&T’s freshly announced LTE trio of Samsung Android smartphones at an event in New York City. Headed by the Samsung Galaxy Note II, the bunch also includes the brand new Galaxy Express mid-ranger, and the rugged Galaxy Rugby Pro.
We’ll begin with the Android 4.0 ICS booting Samsung Galaxy Express. The smartphone sports a 4.5″ Super AMOLED Plus display, which is taken directly from the US crop of Galaxy S II devices. We are yet to find out if the handset sports a Qualcomm Snapdragon S3 or S4 chipset. A 5MP camera and 2000mAh battery are also part of its spec sheet.
Samsung Galaxy Express live photos
Overall the Samsung Galaxy Express felt a lot like a stripped out Galaxy S III. The build quality of the handset is practically identical with the flagship’s, and so is most of the software experience.
The Samsung Galaxy Rugby Pro on the other hand, is a successor to the Rugby Smart, which we reviewed earlier this year. The Android ICS smartphone brings slightly updated internals and LTE connectivity compared to its predecessor, while keeping the same MIL-STD-810G certified body.
Samsung Galaxy Rugby Pro live photos
Much like the original Samsung Rugby Smart, the newcomer is rugged not only on paper. The Galaxy Rugby Pro is a seriously tough guy and looks the part. We surely look forward to testing its credentials out soon more thoroughly.
The AT&T branded Samsung Galaxy Note II was present as well. It was sporting a flip cover, but we still managed to catch a glimpse of its AT&T branded back.
AT&T Samsung Galaxy Note II live photos
The specifications of the AT&T Galaxy Note II are the same as the ones of the international version, save for the presence of LTE connectivity. You can check out our thorough review of the N7100 over here.
The trio of smartphones is bound to appear on the carrier’s shelves in the nearest future. The Galaxy Note II is certain to be formally announced on 24th this month at an event in New York City.
Google Now updated with public alerts, movie showtimes, real time sport results
With the IFA going at full swing we almost missed the new update for Google Now. Today, all Jelly Bean got a cool new version of their virtual assistant, packing several cool new features.
Google Now is capable of displaying various public alerts as well as real time sport results. But wait, there is more!
In addition to those, Google Now can track movie showtimes for you and give you notifications when you are close to a cinema or it’s a weekend/a day off work.
Finally, Google Now extended its support to include South Korea. If you have a Jelly Bean device feel free to share your impressions of the updated Google Now service in the comments section below.
Chinese officials start seizing iPads from retailers after Apple loses lawsuit
Chinese officials started confiscating iPad slates from retailers, following the defeat in the naming rights lawsuit for the Cupertino-based company. Many retailers have had their stores visited by employees of Administrations of Industry and Commerce and their in-stock iPads taken away.
The campaign comes despite the appeal lawsuit that is still going in the Chinese court. There’s no saying when it will be over, but Apple will obviously have trouble selling its tablet in the world’s most populous country until then.
Meanwhile Proview, the company that won the iPad trademark rights, demanded an official apology and a compensation of $38 million from Apple.
It was always certain that Apple will pay whatever needs to be paid to get itself out of trouble. However, given this most recent turn of event, Apple may be forced to act before the court case is over, as suspension of sales might be more damaging to its financial results than a few millions in compensation.
LG announces world's first FullHD smartphone display with a pixel density of 440ppi
LG has created a new display for the ever evolving smartphone that involves packing in 1920 x 1080 pixels in just 5-inches of display space. This is the world’s first FullHD smartphone display and has a pixel density of an astonishing 440ppi, way ahead of what we currently have in our phones.
The panel used in the display is an Advanced High Performance In-Plane Switching or AH-IPS LCD. This is the same technology that LG used in one of its panels last year for which they also won an award. Compared to standard IPS panels, AH-IPS panels have greater color accuracy, wider viewing angles and greater light transmission which leads to lower power consumption.
This 5-inch FullHD panel will be released in the second half of this year and should hopefully be the norm in next year’s high-end smartphones.
The FCC database revealed a number of elements pertaining to a new member of Sony’s VAIO laptop family this week in the form of the VCC111.
It would seem that manufactures are still happy to follow through on support for Google’s web connected OS and Sony are shaping up to provide the next Chromebook in the lineup.
The VCC111 can be seen in fairly comprehensive detail, dispelling any confusions over this laptop as an ultrabook, rather than a Chromebook, which was one initial speculation. The 111 is a well connected device, with two USB ports alongside an SD card reader, an HDMI port on the opposing side and what looks like a removable battery.
Right side, left side and front views of the VCC111.
Based on the various files referenced on the FCC’s site, a specs list has been pieced together, but there are still uncertainties over some of the hardware under the VCC111′s hood.
For starters it utilizes an 11.6″ Samsung-made display. Internals are rumored to include an Nvidia Tegra 250 T25 1.2GHz ARM based CPU, backed up by 2GB of RAM and internal storage in the form of an SSD with a 16GB capacity. There’s also the essential inclusion of WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and of course Bluetooth.
Going by the patterns seen on previous Chromebooks, the VCC111 should cost in the vicinity of $299-$400 and going by its appearance on the FCC database we could see it arrive on the market in a matter of weeks.
Does Sony stepping into the Chromebook ring change the stakes? With an established sub-brand like VAIO in the Chrome OS-running family, will there be greater potential for adoption by new users with existing Sony loyalties? Let us know your thoughts in the comments.
Samsung opened its first Samsung Mobile Store in Paris, France on December 1. It’s dedicated to mobile devices only and offers a similar experience and support as the Apple’s Retail Stores.
The store spreads to 170 square meters and you can find and try every one of the latest Samsung’s smartphones, players, slates, portable cameras and notebooks.
The Mobile Store is probably also the one place where you can find all original accessories for Samsung’s latest gadgets.
Samsung Mobile Store also doubles as a showroom for Samsung’s distribution partners as well as a place where children can learn and play with the new technologies.
Just to avoid the confusion, Samsung already has its own stores around the world, but this is the first one exclusively dedicated to the mobile technologies. So you won’t find TVs, PCs and other non-mobile Samsung devices.
If you like reading on your phone then you may have used or heard of Read it Later. One of the most popular reading apps around, Read it Later allowed you to mark sites on your desktop browser for reading later and then when you go to the mobile app you would find them there properly formatted for the display of your smartphone.
Read it Later has now gone through a major redesign and is now called Pocket. The developers have changed almost every visible aspect of the application, and it looks almost nothing like the old one. It is also completely free, unlike Read it Later, which was sold in free and paid versions.
Right off the bat you’ll notice that Pocket is a gorgeous app and is miles ahead of the app that it replaces in terms of design alone. The new UI shows you the list of articles along with a thumbnail image on the right. On the top you can choose which category to display. Unlike Read it Later, Pocket supports images and videos along with articles. You can tag the items in the list, mark them as favorite or archive them for offline viewing.
Open the article and you will find the new article view with the tool bar at the bottom. With just one tap you can make the app go full screen. The toolbar lets you adjust the font size, switch between serif and sans-serif fonts, text justification and an inverse night mode. You can also adjust the display brightness independent of the main settings.
Pocket is a multiplatform app, which means along with iPhone and iPad it is also available on Android (no Windows Phone version, yet). The Android version too looks beautiful and it is optimized for Ice Cream Sandwich but the biggest problem with this version is the scrolling, which is terribly sluggish, even on powerful phones such as HTC One X. The original Read it Later app was a lot smoother in comparison. There is also a version for the Kindle Fire, although we could not try it out.
Pocket is free for download and has all the features and more from the premium version of Read it Later, which would be great news for those who were using the free version but not so much for those who recently purchased it. There are a couple of niggles with it, such as the lack of choices for fonts and the poor scrolling on the Android version but otherwise it is a fantastic app for those who like to read even when they are away from their computers.
Download for iOS • Download for Android • Download for Kindle Fire
You may have heard about the game Tiny Wings by now. It was released in February last year and so far has only been available on the iPhone and iPod touch.
A few days ago, developer Andreas Illiger released the v2.0 of Tiny Wings that introduces some new gameplay mechanics, along with an iPad version. Let’s take a look at it.
Just in case you don’t know about this game, here is a quick recap. Tiny Wings involves controlling a bird with small wings that cannot fly on its own. Instead, it uses the terrain to its advantage and slides down slopes to cover ground. As a player, you have just one thing to do: tap the screen, which causes the bird to slide down the slope faster, which in turn causes it to jump higher when the terrain slopes upwards.
You have to time your taps properly so that you attain maximum speed while going up the slope and thus cover the most distance. You have a limited amount of time on your hand and the more ground you cover in that time, the higher your score.
Tiny Wings makes use of procedural graphics, that is, graphics that are generated on the fly. This means that the terrain never looks the same no matter how many times you play the game.
v1.0 of the game had just one level that involved covering as much distance as possible and performing certain challenges, such as staying in the air for a certain amount of time or covering a certain amount of distance.
v2.0, however, brings a new game mode called ‘Flight School’ that adds four more birds. In Flight School, you can choose from any of the four birds (they have the same abilities; only their color and the sound they make are unique). The current version of Tiny Wings has three islands and each island has five levels. Once you choose a bird, you will be competing against the other birds to reach the destination first. If you are in the top three, you progress onto the next level, or you try the level again.
The gameplay is basically the same as in the main ‘Day Trip’ game mode, although the environments have been slightly changed. There are no coins to collect here and the blue boost points have been replaced with sunflowers, which will boost you if you land directly on them. Certain depressions in the terrain now also contain water and if you land in it you lose your speed and you can’t jump out.
The new game mode is fun and it gives you something to compete against, even in single-player mode. I also noticed that although it’s easy to come in at second or third, the first position is substantially more difficult to attain, which keeps things from being too easy.
Since there are only three islands for now (with more coming soon) and with fifteen levels between them, it’s not too time consuming to finish them all in once sitting. After completing each island your bird gets an upgraded nest. Once you fully upgrade the nest of one bird, you can choose another and play the levels again, if you so wish.
Another major thing that this update brings is an iPad version. The iPad version is a separate download and supports the Retina display on your new iPad. This version also comes with a split screen multi-player mode, where the screen is vertically divided in two parts so that two people can play and compete in a single game simultaneously.
Now, if you have played this game before, you know that it can be very addictive. Tiny Wings falls in the category of games that includes the likes of Canabalt or Temple Run, where the gameplay is ridiculously simple and repetitive, yet you keep on playing it again and again in the hopes of doing better next time just because it’s so much fun. Tiny Wings also complements the fun gameplay with beautiful hand-drawn visuals that look especially stunning on the Retina display and lovely, soothing music that stays with you long after you stop playing the game.
Overall, Tiny Wings is simple, fun and beautiful. It can be enjoyed by anyone, anytime and does not cost a lot. v2.0 isn’t a substantially major leap forward but then again, the game was already very good so even small improvements can go a long way. A must buy, if you haven’t already done so by now. Too bad it’s only available on iOS right now. Hopefully, the developer will release it on other platforms soon.
Rating: 4.5/5 Pros: Simple yet addictive gameplay, beautiful visuals and sound Cons: Not a universal app (iPad version is separate and slightly expensive)
Developer: Andreas Illiger Content Rating: 4+ Size: 15.7/22.3MB Price: $0.99/$2.99
Samsung Galaxy S II stars in second ad, no hands required [VIDEO]
The second Samsung Galaxy S II ad is out and it takes us far north where an Eskimo faces a challenge – send an SMS with gloves on. Taking the gloves off isn’t recommended, even predictive text input can’t make sense of text typed with freezing, shaking hands.
So, how does the Galaxy S II help the Eskimo? Well… Using Google’s Voice Actions is the answer. Of course Voice Actions will work on any Froyo droid, so I’m a bit confused as to what Samsung is advertising here.
Anyway, here’s the video:
Better than showing the Samsung Galaxy S II working under water with a disclaimer that it can’t actually do that. Really, I don’t get the value of either of those ads.
Twist Pilot is an puzzle action by Zynga for iOS and Android. The game involves controlling Phil through a maze while collecting rings and avoiding spiders.
The game uses simple gameplay elements and cleverly designed levels to deliver the thrills. Let’s take a closer look at it.
Title
Twist Pilot
Developer
Zynga
Platform
iOS
Android
Release Date
October 2012
October 2012
Content rating
4+
Everyone
Size
36.4MB
36MB
Price
$0.99
Gameplay
This is Phil. Phil is a�� I’m not sure what he is but he looks like a weirdly shaped band-aid and has eyes and a mouth. Phil also happens to be constantly rotating. Your goal is to guide Phil through the maze towards the goal, while collecting as many rings as you can and avoiding the spiders.
Now because Phil is constantly rotating, guiding him through the maze is not as easy as it sounds. You have to time your movements so that you can easily pass through narrow sections and bends. You also have to look out for spiders and giant moving blocks that might come in your way. But most importantly, you have to take care not to touch any surface at all.
This is where it gets tricky because if you touch something that is not a ring or a key you lose health. Lose enough health and the game is over and you have to start the level all over again. Thankfully, your health regenerates and in particularly challenging levels you will also find health boosts but that doesn’t mean you can carelessly lose your health. Losing health also comes with a 1.5 second time penalty, which affects your final time.
At the end of each level, you earn up to three stars depending upon how many rings you collected and if you managed to finish under the target time for the level.
You have power-ups scattered throughout the levels to help you through. Some of them make Phil smaller so he can squeeze through tight spaces. Some make him longer, which honestly only makes things more difficult. Some slow him down, some increase his rate of rotation and some make him spin the other way. The effects of these power-ups are temporary so you need to do whatever you have to do quickly once you use them. The power-ups are optional and you can only use them if you want to although at times they are necessary.
To move Phil around, you have to drag your finger across the screen. Now I have couple of issues with this method of controlling. First of all, it is the exact opposite of the way we are used to moving things around on a touchscreen. Take a web browser for example. When you swipe on the screen, the web page move in the direction of the swipe, along with your finger. We have been doing this for long enough for it to feel natural. In Twist Pilot, swiping the finger moves the environment in the opposite direction, which is why it feels odd at first.
Secondly, the game involves a lot, and I mean a lot of swiping on the screen. After a few levels you feel like you need a new set of fingertips and start worrying if all that swiping around has wiped the prints off your fingers. The rate of motion is understandably slowed down so when you are navigating through tight spaces you have more precision but when moving through long, wide spaces the amount of swiping you have to do becomes quite tiring. An alternate, perhaps accelerometer based control mechanism, would have been welcome, at least as an option.
The initial levels in the game are fairly simple. You will be navigating through uncomplicated mazes and not have much in terms of enemies to worry about. The later levels wind up the difficulty level considerably and make you crawl through some tight spaces while throwing a ton of spiders in for good measure. The target time also drops from comfortably high to uncomfortably close and you may find yourself replaying levels if you dawdle around or take too much damage repeatedly.
Initially, I didn’t think much of the gameplay and found it way too boring and easy for my liking. However, the later levels are quite gripping. Also, even when it becomes difficult, the game is never too hard and 99% of the times you will be flying through a level with three stars at the first attempt. This makes you keep going to the next level as soon as you finish one and thus end up playing the game for much longer than you initially anticipated. There are 75 levels in total right now but more are promised in the future.
Graphics and Sound
Twist Pilot has a very simplistic look to it. The visuals and animations lack the polish of some of the games we have seen and has the feel of something made on a tight budget. The character designs are also clearly targeted towards kids and adults playing the game might not find them all that amusing. It’s not a terrible looking game, and actually looks pretty decent on high-resolution displays. Just that it lacks the sophistication and flair one expects from a game studio as big as Zynga.
The sound in the game is pretty good though. You have a good variety in the background music, from dubstep to some mexican music and it’s all pretty good. The sound effects are also pretty decent overall.
Verdict
While it did not seem much in the beginning, Twist Pilot turned out to be surprisingly enjoyable. The gameplay is fun and not too difficult so that pretty much anyone can enjoy this game, although the kids would probably like it more than the adults. The reversed control mechanism takes getting used to and the swiping can get tiring at times. Also, the visuals could have used some more polish. But in the grand scheme things, these issues don’t bother you as much as you’d think and for $0.99, you really can’t complain much. Overall, for that price, Twist Pilot is a fun game that’s worth checking out.
Rating: 4/5 Pros: Simple yet engrossing gameplay that should appeal to anyone, peppy soundtrack Cons: Reversed movement control takes getting used to, all the swiping can get a bit tiring, visuals lack polish and look a bit tacky
Most mobile games are either available on both iOS as well as Android or are iOS exclusive. But turns out, there are a few games exclusive to Android as well.
One such game is Puddle THD. In fact, this game is so exclusive, that it only works on the devices running on the NVIDIA Tegra 3 hardware. We decided to take a look and see if it is worth five bucks.
Title
Puddle THD
Platform
Android
Developer
Neko Entertainment
Release Date
June, 2012
Content Rating
Everyone
Size
156MB
Price
$4.99
Gameplay
The gameplay in Puddle involves guiding various liquids through obstacles towards the goal at the end of the level. The controlling can be done using either the accelerometer, on screen controls or even a gamepad.
You control various types of liquids in the game and each liquid has different properties. Water tends to evaporate when it comes in contact with fire. Hydrocarbon burns instantly. Oil catches fire but burns slowly, giving you time to control. Weed killer dissolves when it comes in contact with sundews but melts through weeds and branches. Fertilizer causes some plants to grow. The liquids are level specific and not all liquids can be found in every environment.
You have to control these liquids through various environments and guide them towards the goal. At times you use the liquids themselves to control certain aspects of the environments, such as pressing buttons to open gates, etc. Depending upon how much liquid is left at the end and the time you took, you get a gold, silver or bronze badge. If all the liquid is spent before the end of the level, either by evaporating, catching fire, dissolving or by some other means, the level ends and you have to start again.
As mentioned before, the controlling is done using the accelerometer and depending upon how much you turn you control the angle of the environment, which in turn controls the liquid. The accelerometer controls are fine but the on-screen controls are imprecise. You can’t control the how much turn to dial in and pressing the left or right side of the screen simply tilts the environments completely. It’s like playing a racing game with a keyboard. This game is best played with the accelerometer, unless you have a controller that you can connect to your Android device, in which case you may get a better experience.
Controlling the liquids through the obstacles proves to be a fairly challenging experience. The difficulty level is well balanced so they levels never feel too easy or too difficult. Some of the levels are slightly more challenging than others, which means you will be playing them more than once to get through but it never gets frustrating. The levels are also short, so it takes about a minute or two to get through them, ideal for a quick game session while waiting for something or someone (although you’ll look silly moving your phone around in public).
If at all you do get stuck on a level, Puddle has what the developers call ‘Whine’, which basically allows you to skip a level. You get four of these and every time you run out of your liquid before a level ends, the game tells you to that you can “go to the next level by whining”.
Graphics and sound
The gameplay in Puddle is ably assisted by the beautiful visuals and sound. The game uses 2D graphics but makes good uses of physics processing for rendering the liquids on screen. I do have a complaint with the liquids though. In a game where the liquid physics is such an important aspect, Puddle makes the blunder of rendering all the liquids equally. All the liquids have the same viscosity and exhibit the same behavior under motion. In real life, oil and water have significantly different viscosities but in the game they have a similar, jelly-like form. Had it not been for the different color there would have been no way to tell them apart. The water in ‘Where’s My Water?’, for example, looks and behaves much more like its real life counterpart.
Other than the liquids, though, the rest of the game looks great. All the objects have great design and animations and look especially fantastic on the HD displays of high-end Android devices that usually run on Tegra 3. There were some minor performance issues, though, and on some levels the game would definitely stutter, which is odd for something that has been designed and optimized for one particular set of hardware.
I also had issue with the on-screen options that uses tiny text. It looks like the UI was designed for tablets but is not very user friendly on smartphone displays, even if the display in question is 4.7-inch in size.
The sound in the game is also very nice. From the soothing background music (that reminds me of the music from Osmos) to the sound of the environments around you, it all sounds great.
Conclusion
At $4.99, Puddle THD is a bit pricey. Since the game is only available on Tegra 3 devices, which are usually all high-end, the developers probably thought they could get away with this pricing. Fortunately, the game itself is worth it. There are plenty of challenging levels to play though and even after you complete them you’d want to play through them again to better your score. It also helps that the game looks and sounds great.
If you just bought a brand new One X or Nexus 7, this can be a great game to show off the hardware and display on your device. If you think the price is too high, there is a demo that you can try that will definitely convince you to purchase this game.
Rating: 4/5 Pros: Fun and challenging gameplay, beautiful visuals and sound Cons: Bit expensive, liquid physics could have been more realistic, occasional performance hiccups, tiny UI buttons
